Ford EcoSport : Official Review

This is a discussion on Ford EcoSport : Official Review within Official New Car Reviews, part of the Team-BHP Reviews category; Originally Posted by Sebring
Do you have a pic of the new colour you can share? We are looking at ...

We got home our silver AT ecosport yesterday (yay!). Will try to write up an ownership thread in few days.

Congratulations on the AT - would love to hear from you in your ownership report!

Quote:

Originally Posted by akj123

One surprise was that the duplicate key is a simple one - no remote locking buttons. A disappointment when more than one people use the car. Has anyone here got the duplicate key converted into remote-locking style ? I don't need flippy but the buttons.

This was called out in the review of the EcoSport - for the lower models the spare is a standard mechanical key.

As fiat_tarun has said, you can just order a spare. Your key might have come with a small metal tag on it - note down the number on that, as well as the VIN number (bottom of the windshield on the outside of the passenger side) - with these details if you go to Ford ASC they can order and program a new key. I'm not sure of the price of this however.

^^ You can order another remote key through your dealer. Should cost you around Rs. 6000 - 7000.

Quote:

Originally Posted by arunphilip

As fiat_tarun has said, you can just order a spare. Your key might have come with a small metal tag on it - note down the number on that, as well as the VIN number (bottom of the windshield on the outside of the passenger side) - with these details if you go to Ford ASC they can order and program a new key. I'm not sure of the price of this however.

Thanks, had asked the sales person to check on this yesterday. 6-7k seems too high, would probably go for it if it's in the 2-3k range. Let's see.

We got home our silver AT ecosport yesterday (yay!). Will try to write up an ownership thread in few days.

Pls post your write up asap. Also please tell me that pick up of AT is not bad and that suspension is not too stiff over broken roads. I'm taken aback by most users complaining about stiff suspension. I think unless you are a corner-craving rally-boy or a speed fiend dwelling on 150-160 kph territory, stiff suspension does not make any sense. Most inner-city roads are broken and people are forced to take these stretches at 10 to 25 kph and if a car has a stiff suspension it will rise and fall with every undulation on road, passing the shocks to occupants. Not at all desirable in a daily-drive car. I think this is one area where Hyundai cars shine. They have very soft suspension and hence people hardly feel a thing on bad stretches. Even most Maruti models have stiff suspension. A-Star has a back-breaking stiff suspension. Ditto, Swift. These guys need to keep our inner roads in mind while designing cars.

Pls post your write up asap. Also please tell me that pick up of AT is not bad and that suspension is not too stiff over broken roads. I'm taken aback by most users complaining about stiff suspension.

Pickup does seem not to be great but this is just first day so longer term owners can comment better. In any case given the state of roads and traffic in BLR, engine and pickup was not even in my list of priorities.

I don't understand what stiff or soft suspension means. Comparatively the car takes both the potholes and speed breakers better than my swift (given it is significantly more expensive I would expect this). However I feel that even my older Opel or a Vento would have better ride quality. People say that Duster excels at ride quality, i did not test drive it. The ride quality was somewhat important to me, but then eventually one cannot get the best of everything in one package.

On my way back from Agra noticed humming noise while driving in 5th gear.
The noise was only with 5th gear and absolutely nothing in other gears. Other than the noise there hasn't been any changes to car's behaviour.
On reaching Bangalore, gave the car for repair at Elite Ford. After about 3 weeks, got the car back with issue resolved under warranty. I was told the 5th gear had been replaced, however the bill they gave me shows a lot of other components that were replaced.
After receiving the car, the very next day noticed crack in front windshield . After discussing with dealer /Chennai Ford, the Chennai Ford agreed to replace windhshield free of cost as there is no visible damage that would have caused the crack. Have given the car today for replacing the windshield, hopefully I get it by tomorrow or max by Wednesday.

Learning, always buy extended warranty when you buy a new car. Given the complexity involved in current cars, 3-4 years down the lane some or other failure is bound to happen(may be because of driving style,luck or manufacturing defect). I have extended warranty for my Vento and came in handy when it came to replacing ABS sensors, AC vents.

Also please tell me ... that suspension is not too stiff over broken roads. I'm taken aback by most users complaining about stiff suspension.

The suspension in both the 2013 EcoSport (pre-facelift) and 2015 EcoSport (facelift) is firm/stiff. No two ways about it. Note that the 2015 facelift has not introduced any suspension changes in India, although the internationally facelifted model has revised the suspension and reduced the ground clearance from 200 mm to 190 mm.

How does the firm suspension behave? Well, at city speeds in the EcoSport, hitting pot breakers is jarring and noisy. And its no fun, because it feels unpleasant and sounds unpleasant. Cars that are more softly sprung probably handle this better.

On the highway, any undulations on the road are taken care of very well by the EcoSport, however. This is where softly sprung cars lose out, because over such undulations those cars will start bobbing, making the passengers very uncomfortable.

The firm suspension also helps control body roll to a good extent, particularly in such a tall vehicle. It also gives confidence when taking properly banked corners at speed (but its no Fiesta!).

This is why if the EcoSport is going to be used to travel with parents/elders, it is best for them to accompany a buyer on the test drive.

I've been doing a bit of price analysis of the EcoSport, particularly with the new Trend+ variant having been introduced. The conclusion is that the Trend+ variant allows you to get the EcoBoost at a better cost (for the features offered in that variant) than the Titanium+.

To start off, I randomly chose Kolkata as the city whose ex-showroom prices I'd use. Your results would vary for other cities.
The nice thing is that the diesel engine is offered in all variants, allowing it to be used as a baseline for comparison. On the petrol side, engines alternate between the naturally aspirated 1.5 Ti-VCT (non-plus variants) and turbocharged 1.0 EcoBoost (all plus variants).

Trend -> Titanium Upgrade
The cost of upgrading from a Trend to Titanium variant is identical irrespective of whether the engine is petrol (1.5 Ti-VCT) or diesel (1.5 TDCi). Fortunately, there are no surprises here.

Trend -> Trend+ Upgrade

Having previously established that a variant upgrade costs the same for identical engines, we now look at upgrading from Trend to Trend+. On the petrol side, this implies moving from the 1.5 Ti-VCT engine to the 1.0 EcoBoost engine, on the diesel side the engine is unchanged.

Now we see that the 1.0 EcoBoost engine carries with it a 30k sale premium over the 1.5 Ti-VCT engine.

Bear in mind that this 30k sale premium does not include the tax savings realized by moving to a <1.2L petrol engine in a sub-4m car. So the true difference will be much higher than 30k. What it costs Ford to build and import the EcoBoost vs. locally manufacture the 1.5 Ti-VCT we can only speculate about, which is also why I've not calculated the actual tax savings.

Trend+ to Titanium+ Upgrade
Moving from the Trend+ to Titanium+ variants, we get more trim with identical engines (petrol is the 1.0 EcoBoost in both cases). Surprisingly, instead of the same upgrade cost, the upgrade on the petrol side costs 10k more. Sly move by Ford to stick in a 10k margin on the petrol side! Given that the Titanium+ diesel is priced at a much higher 10.8 lakh, they have assumed that buyers wouldn't notice this 10k increase.

Titanium to Titanium+ Upgrade
Net result - for someone moving from the Titanium to Titanium+ variant, they end up paying 40k more on the petrol side. This includes the 30k sale premium for the EcoBoost, plus the 10k that Ford snuck in for the EcoBoost engine.

American automobile manufacturer Ford India sold 20,420 vehicles in combined domestic wholesales and exports in October, compared to 11,630 vehicles in the corresponding month last year, thus witnessing a jump of 76 percent, the company said in a statement.

I went to the service center and showed the vehicle to a service adviser. He told me its normal. So i being skeptical asked if i can feel the clutch on any other Eco Sport standing in the service station. They took me to a titanium version standing there and i depressed the clutch and found the same pulsation on that pedal too. I think its too much of an impossible coincidence that the said vehicle must have had the same issue too.

A gentleman in my neighbor hood has a ford EcoSport and i think ill go and try the clutch on his vehicle today. Ill keep you posted on what i find.

Dear Stonehedge,

I would like to mention that I am facing the same clutch pulsation issue (When depressed) with my Ford EcoSport diesel. My car has done 2000 KMs on the road now and would like to know if you managed to get a answer to the niggling problem which is taking away all the merits of the cool driving experience of the EcoSport. I am meeting the service manager at Bhavna Ford Navimumbai for the issue and will raise the same. Any feedback would be appreciated.